Duncan School of Law

Admissions  

Greetings and welcome to the Duncan School of Law at Lincoln Memorial University!  Located in the heart of downtown Knoxville, Tennessee, the institution matriculated its inaugural class in 2009 – the bicentennial year of the birth of Abraham Lincoln. 

The sixteenth President of the United States was born on February 12, 1809, in Kentucky.  Lincoln had little formal education, as his father was an itinerate farmer and carpenter.  It was during Abraham’s formative adolescent years that he developed a voracious appetite for learning.  This proclivity for erudition would remain with Lincoln for the rest of his days.

With the support of friends and neighbors, Lincoln ran for the Illinois state legislature in 1832, when he was just twenty-three years old.  He would lose this election, but would go on to be elected to that legislative body two years later.  It was at this time, that he became acquainted with the law and the legal profession.  John Todd Stuart (a friend from the Illinois militia, a cousin of Lincoln’s future wife, Mary Todd, and an attorney in the Illinois capitol of Springfield) urged Lincoln to study law.  Stuart and Lincoln would eventually become law partners.

At the age of twenty-eight, Lincoln was licensed to practice law and admitted to the Illinois Bar.  By all accounts Lincoln was a skilled attorney, devoting his energy and intellect to his chosen profession.  The "rail-splitter" would transform himself from his backwoods, western frontier upbringing into one of history’s most notable and chronicled figures.

The legal profession is all about communication.  Laws are the regulations, principles, customs, etc. by which individuals and communities interact with one another.  Just as Lincoln sought justice for his clients and to provide sound legal counsel, the proposed Duncan School of Law at Lincoln Memorial University seeks to emulate his example by recruiting and training future legal professionals who are intellectually inquisitive, energetic, passionate about the study of law, of high moral character, and seek "equal justice under law" in order to serve eastern Tennessee and the southern Appalachian region.

Again, welcome to our web page.  If you should have any questions, please feel free to contact us at your convenience.  We look forward to working with you in this process.  Thank you for your interest in Lincoln Memorial University!

For further information, contact:

Office of Admissions
865.545.5303 or 865.545.5300
law.admissions@LMUnet.edu